Human Rights Awards

Human Rights Awards to Be Presented on May 18

The Fairfax County Human Rights Commission will present its 28th annual
Human Rights Awards at a banquet on Thursday, May 18, at 6:30 p.m. at the
Sheraton Premiere at Tysons Corner, 8661 Leesburg Pike, Vienna. The guest
speaker will be the Honorable Gerald Bruce Lee, United States District
Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.

The Human Rights Awards recognize outstanding accomplishments in the
area of human rights in Fairfax County. Accomplishments may represent a
single significant activity or long-term commitment displayed through
various activities. The winners are selected from nominees representing
three categories: individuals, nonprofit organizations and businesses.

For more information or tickets for the awards ceremony, call the
Fairfax County Human Rights Commission at 703-324-2953, TTY 703-324-2900.
Tickets are $50 per person and may be paid in advance or at the door.
Reservations, however, need to be made by noon on Monday, May 15.

The Human Rights Commission was established in 1974 by the Fairfax
County Board of Supervisors to eliminate discrimination on the basis of
race, color, sex, religion, national origin, marital status, age or
disability in the areas of employment, housing, public accommodations,
credit and education.

Dr. Deborah Foreman
Foreman was selected for her long-term commitment to promoting human
rights in Fairfax County. Among her recent accomplishments, as a member
of the Fairfax County Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court
Citizens Advisory Council, Foreman helped plan the council's Teen Driving
Forum created to reduce teen fatalities in the county. She is currently
president of the Janice Scott Memorial Scholarship Fund, and she served
two years as chairperson of the Northern Virginia Chapter of Delta Sigma
Theta Inc. Project ACE-Mentoring program for collegiate students. Foreman
also served as director of the Burke/Fairfax chapter of Jack and Jill of
America Inc., and chaired its signature program, The Black History Forum,
which aims to increase the awareness of the outstanding contributions of
African Americans. Foreman also has served on a number of other
committees and received several awards for her community service.

Harrell K. Fuller
Fuller was chosen for his exceptional organizational skills and writing
ability, which helped a variety of local and international human rights
and social justice causes forward. Fuller has been instrumental in
getting his church — the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Fairfax —
along with other UU congregations in the area and local churches of other
denominations to improve the conditions of Fairfax County’s less
fortunate residents in the areas of self-improvement and shelter. He is
co-founder and past-president of the Baltimore-Washington, D.C. region’s
Unitarian Universalists for Social Justice, organized to enable
individual congregations to speak together in order to have a more
effective voice on issues of human rights and social justice. Fuller has
used his talents to encourage UUCF to take on a Habitat for Humanity
project to build a house in Fairfax County. He then recruited other
churches to assist and cooperate in the effort.

Dr. Young W. Kang
Kang, who was left blind as a teenager after a soccer accident in Korea,
was selected for his work on issues ranging from the inclusion of people
with disabilities in emergency planning to cultural differences and
attitudes in empowering people with disabilities. He has tackled
substantive policy issues by starting the Education and Rehabilitation
Exchange Foundation to educate Korea about the policies and resources
available in the United States. He urged passage of legislation in Korea
similar to the Americans with Disabilities Act, and former President
George H. W. Bush and former U.S. Attorney General Dick Thornburgh aided
in his efforts. Kang has served on the boards of Goodwill Industries
International and the National Organization on Disability, and he
currently is a senior advisor to the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt
Institute and vice chairman of the World Committee on Disability. Current
President George W. Bush nominated Kang in 2001 to serve on the National
Council on Disability, an independent federal agency that makes
recommendations to the president and to Congress on issues affecting the
54 million Americans with disabilities.

Imam Mohamed Magid
Magid was chosen for his efforts to strengthen community understanding
and respect through promoting multi-cultural community dialogues. He
helped increase interfaith participation and response to human service
needs and challenges. The dialogues provide people of different cultural,
ethnic and faith groups with an opportunity to share and interact in a
safe, facilitated setting as a way to promote deeper conversations and
respect, and reduce community fear and bias. Magid’s hope is that during
times of community crisis, the understanding and respect fostered through
the dialogues and relationship developed will bring people together to
effectively respond and recover from the challenges that present
themselves during such times. Over the past three years, Magid’s
leadership has prompted Fairfax County residents to organize community
dialogue steering committees in McLean, Annandale and Reston/Herndon.

The Committee for Helping Others
The purpose of the CHO is to provide charity to needy persons in the
community. The CHO’s primary geographic area of charitable work includes
Vienna, Oakton, Merrifield and Dunn Loring. The aid provided includes,
but is not limited to, emergency services, food distribution, furniture
distribution, clothes distribution, transportation and Meals on Wheels.
During the 2004-05 fiscal year, the CHO paid 350 bills for individuals
and families in need, and it provided 1,350 pieces of furniture to 450
families. Approximately 885 people were provided with clothing during the
same period and more than 1,000 individuals received food or food
certificates, thanks to the efforts of the CHO.

The Northern Virginia Association of REALTORS
The Northern Virginia Association of REALTORS has been committed to
supporting equal opportunity in housing in Fairfax County and all of the
jurisdictions in Northern Virginia and has taken an active role in
communicating compliance efforts and strategies of all fair housing laws
and amendments. NVAR proactively generates an awareness of people’s
rights under the fair housing laws through continuing education classes
for its REALTOR members. NVAR has adopted a policy that a cooperative
partnership approach to addressing fair housing issues helps to eliminate
discrimination for the real estate market. To that end NVAR has entered
into a Voluntary Affirmative Marketing Agreement with the U.S. Department
of Housing and Urban Development aimed at providing minorities equal
access to homes and mortgage loans. In addition, NVAR formed the Equal
Opportunity/Cultural Diversity Committee to work with Fairfax County and
other local governments to stay up to date in fair housing news and
communicate that news to its membership.

To request this information in an alternate format, call the Office of
Public Affairs at 703-324-3187, TTY 711.